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ADDRESS 



OF 



Hon. Philander Chase Knox 



AT A 



PATRIOTIC MASS MEETING 



IN 



EXPOSITION MUSIC HALL 
PITTSBURGH, PA. 



MARCH 3ist, 1917 



ADDRESS 



OF 



Hon. Philander Chase Knox 



AT A 



PATRIOTIC MASS MEETING 



IN 



EXPOSITION MUSIC HALL 
PITTSBURGH, PA. 



MARCH 3ist, 1917 






'Til© mita 

Allen, Lane & Scott 

Printers 

Philadelphia 



I am well satisfied that pending the de- 
livery by the President to Congress of his 
message of information and recommendation, 
it is not judicious for me to advocate any 
particular line of action by him in a public 
meeting called to comment upon our duty as 
patriotic citizens in the present international 
situation. 

These meetings are important and valuable 
as reflecting the sentiment and purpose of the 
people in the event of hostilities. I am con- 
vinced, however, that those who share some 
of the responsibilities of the President in 
determining our foreign policies should them- 
selves refrain from active advocacy of any 
particular policy until after the field of dis- 
cussion has been opened by the President, as 
he proposes to.immediately A9 in an address 
to Congress. 



True to the record and traditions of the 
past when our country has been imperiled, 
this city and this commonwealth are among 
the first of all the cities and commonwealths 
of the Union to give assurances of devoted 
loyalty to the flag and pledges of whole- 
hearted support to those charged with the 
responsibilities of maintaining the Govern- 
ment's rights and vindicating the Govern- 
ment's honor. 

By no wrongful act of our own, we have 
been drawn to the rim of the vortex of war, 
that with whirlpool madness is wrecking the 
manhood, the resources and the civilization 
of mighty nations. 

Seemingly secure m the sanctions that the 
world has so long conceded to peaceful 
neutral nations, we have pursued our avoca- 
tions, conducted our commerce and bestowed 
our charity with no thought of being em- 
broiled in the differences of other peoples 



or restrained in the exercise of our undoubted 
neutral immunities. 

But this was a fool's paradise, from 
which there has been a rude awakening. 
Our rights upon the high seas have been 
denied and defied. Our people have been 
wantonly murdered in cold blood and our 
ships and our flag have been ignominiously 
effaced from the common highway of man- 
kind. 

Within less than two years seventeen 
American ships have been sunk on the 
high seas by the torpedoes, shells or gun- 
fire of German submarines. Besides this 
many foreign ships have met a similar 
fate, entailing a total loss of two hundred 
and twenty-five American lives and the 
lives of twenty-four children born of foreign 
parents on American soil. 

On March 24, 1916, the French cross- 
channel passenger steamer " Sussex " was 



sunk by a German submarine without warn- 
ing. Several American citizens lost their 
lives. As a result the United States Gov- 
ernment sent on the 1 8th of April a note 
to Germany declaring its intention of break- 
ing off diplomatic relations unless Germany 
abandoned her present policy of sinking her 
passenger and freight ships. In that note 
we said : 

"If it is still the purpose of the Im- 
perial German Government to prosecute 
relentless and indiscriminate warfare 
against vessels of commerce by the use 
of submarines without regard to what the 
Government of the United States must 
consider the sacred and indisputable rules 
of international law and the universally 
recognized dictates of humanity, the Gov- 
ernment of the United States is at last 
forced to the conclusion that there is but 
one course it can pursue. Unless the 



Imperial Government should now imme- 
diately declare and effect an abandon- 
ment of its present methods of submarine 
warfare against passenger and freight- 
carrying vessels, the Government of the 
United States can have no choice but 
to sever diplomatic relations with the 
German Empire altogether." 

In reply to this declaration the Imperial 
German Government gave this Government 
the following assurance: 

"The German Government is prepared 
to do its utmost to confine the operations of 
war for the rest of its duration to the fight- 
ing forces of the belligerents, thereby also 
insuring the freedom of the seas, a princi- 
ple upon which the German Government 
believes, now as before, to be in agree- 
ment with the Government of the United 
States." 

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Yet notwithstanding this solemn protest and 
equally solemn pledge, on January 31, 1917, 
Germany sent notice of the withdrawal of 
her submarine pledges stating that 

"Germany will meet the illegal meas- 
ures of her enemies by forcibly preventing, 
after February 1 , 1 9 1 7 , in a zone around 
Great Britain, France, Italy, and in the 
eastern Mediterranean all navigation, that 
of neutrals included, from and to England 
and from and to France, and that all ships 
met within the zone will be sunk." 

Our answer to this was the dismissal of 
the German Ambassador February 3, 1917. 
Since this date a half-dozen or more Ameri- 
can ships have been torpedoed and destroyed 
and many American lives lost. 

These facts as i have said place us 
today upon the rim of the vortex of war 
and we await with breathless expectancy 



the nation's decision. Whether we are to 
prosecute a merely defacto war of defense 
such as was employed against the French 
spoliators of our commerce in the early 
part of the last century; whether we shall 
seek to punish the aggressor and if so 
whether by an independent war or in full 
alliance with the enemies of Germany; 
whether the means we employ shall be men 
and women or money or ships or all com- 
bined; whatever the precise measures may 
be of offense or defense that will soon be 
adopted, there is one thing about which 
there can be no doubt, we should speedily 
prepare and the measure of that preparedness 
should be gauged by the maximum possibili- 
ties of the situation. 

The United States has never engaged in 
a war of conquest. We have never unsheathed 
the sword except to protect and insure our 
existence, to defend the honor of our flag 



or to vindicate the principles of human 
liberty. And while, in my judgment, as I 
have heretofore said, there is no considera- 
tion which does not demand our aloofness 
from participation in this present gigantic 
war, except that of some dire extremity, 
yet when, if ever, war becomes a necessity, 
upon an issue approved by the people, in 
order to keep secure our rights, independ- 
ence or honor, we will face it with undi- 
vided loyalty and patriotism, consciously 
prepared to meet its well-nigh infinite cost 
in treasure and to sacrifice upon the altar 
of our national welfare the lives of our 
sturdiest and best sons. 

War cannot be declared against or de- 
creed to exist between the United States 
and any other nation except by the people of 
the United States speaking through their 
representatives in Congress. The reservation 
of this power to the people is specific in the 



Constitution of the United States. This is in- 
tended to provide against the possibihty of the 
country being plunged into war through the acts 
of executive officers and to insure that war is 
not declared except in compliance with the 
people's will. A war would be a hopeless 
undertaking, even though the result of a Con- 
gressional declaration, if not supported by the 
conscience and willing service of the public. 
The precise question for the American 
people to solve today is whether such dire 
extremity exists as to warrant us declaring 
war against Germany, or that a state of war 
exists between the United States and Ger- 
many. We are not competent to decide so 
momentous a question unless we have the cour- 
age to take a fair view of the circumstances 
out of which it arises and be guided in our 
decision by all the facts and obligations of 
duty which bear upon the question directly 
and collaterally. 



Upon the one hand Germany says her life 
depends upon her being able to starve her 
enemies, and for that reason she will destroy 
our ships seeking to pass through prohibited 
zones of the high seas. 

We say we have the right to navigate the 
seas unrestrained and will do so without re- 
gard to Germany's alleged necessity. This 
raises the question as between our rights and 
Germany's necessities, and it is contended 
upon the one hand that if that is all there is 
to the contest, we are going far enough for 
the present when we arm our merchant 
ships and put them upon an equal footing 
for attack and defense. It is claimed that 
by so doing we not only do not surrender our 
rights upon the high seas but pursue them 
supported by similar force to that which 
has been brought to bear against them, and 
that such action not only saves our honor 
but bids fair to be effective in the enforce- 

10 



ment of our rights. It is probable if this 
question had arisen in an ordinary war 
between two powers contending for some- 
thing of peculiar interest to themselves 
alone and not of vital consequence to 
the world, that the assertion and enforcement 
of our rights in the manner now employed 
in the danger zones of European waters 
would have been perfectly satisfactory to 
the American public. But is this all that 
is involved ? Many Americans think not 
and regard this world war really a con- 
test between the autocracy and democracy 
of Europe. The allies, they claim, are 
fighting for and the central powers against 
the one great and enduring principle of 
human government and guarantee of human 
liberty and happiness. If this is so what 
relation does the greatest of all of the democ- 
racies of the world sustain to the contest? 

Has its aloofness therefrom ever been justi- 

11 



fiable? Have we been justified in waiting 
until a technical condition of war has been 
brought about by the violation of our own 
national rights or should we have sensed the 
nature of the conflict from the beginning and 
thrown our weight upon the side of those 
who struggle for the maintenance of the 
institutions which we so much revere? In 
other words, should we regard the situation 
as presenting a crisis or an opportunity. 

Believing, as I do, that the President's 
recommendation to the Congress will be that 
it should declare that the acts of Germany 
in attacking American ships and destroying 
American lives are acts of war in con- 
sequence of which we should either assume 
the defensive attitude of armed neutrality, 
or that they constitute such a grave offense 
against our rights that it demands a war of 
aggression to redress the wrongs we have sus- 
tained, I intend to support him in either 



12 



choice, but with the certainty that if he pres- 
ently recommends the former that the latter 
must inevitably follow and that our instant 
duty is to prepare for the larger event. 

I feel sure this larger event lies close upon 
us, unless the war in Europe should terminate 
through causes operating upon the people 
who are sustaining its grievous burdens. 

It has been decreed from all time that 
ultimately men should govern themselves. 
The growth of democracy records the ad- 
vancement made in intelligence and in the 
natural yearning for liberty. 

The preposterous doctrine of the divine 
right of kings could not be propagated as an 
original proposition today in any nation of 
the world, not even where it is now blindly 
accepted by considerable numbers of people 
as an unchallenged ancient belief. 

All civilizing forces, both from within and 
without any particular country, are operat- 



13 



ing for democracy. The old systems finally 
perish through some concrete act of folly or 
madness and the people then come into their 



own. 



The crowning act of madness of autocracv 
is the present European war of ambition, and 
God grant that it shall be ended as it should 
be by the people themselves, crushing forever 
the system and the men who have been its 
beneficiaries. 

What a glorious conclusion it would be 
if those who have endured the agonies and 
shed their blood in an unholy war should be 
the divinely selected instruments to effect 
an enduring victory of liberty and peace. 

I deprecate now that which I publicly 
condemned immediately after the sinking of 
the Lusitania, and that is the disposition in 
some quarters to cast unjust suspicion upon 
the loyalty of those of our fellow-citizens 
who by birth or descent have been allied 

14 



in sentiment with the peoples of other lands. 
I do not for one moment believe that there 
are many who have voluntarily renounced 
their allegiance to other countries and sworn 
true faith and allegiance to the United 
States who were committing conscious acts 
of treachery and perjury. 

The men and women of honor and truth, 
who have come to our shores and by their 
own acts became a part and parcel of our 
body politic, deliberately and voluntarily 
abandoned their native land and everything 
that goes with it. They came to us to take 
on new ties, form new associations and make 
new homes, to adopt new ideals and form 
new traditions. They came with courage 
and hope and upon the faith that from us 
and our institutions they and their posterity 
will secure justice, liberty and happiness. 
The exceptions will be exceedingly rare 
where it will be found that they fall short 



15 



of the full measure of patriotic duty and 
willing sacrifice in any conflict which their 
America may have with the country of their 
descent. 

Whatever befalls our country, let us 
here reconsecrate ourselves in its service. 
Whether it may be on land or sea, in the 
factory or in the field, somewhere, some- 
how, we all may be useful. We can not 
all be conspicuous, but no man can foresee 
the far-reaching consequences of even the 
humblest act. The fate of armies has 
often depended upon the vigilance of a 
single sentinel upon a lonely post or the 
courage of an humble courier bearing vital 
orders. 



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